Random Thoughts from Russia

Ussuriysk Baby Home (Little Guy's) vs Artem Baby Home (Blake's) 
Ussuriysk Baby Home Number 3 is in the middle of Ussuriysk City which has a population of several thousand people. Artem Baby Home is outside the town of Artem in a village which appears to be in the middle of nowhere. It took us 45 minutes to drive to Artem when visiting Blake. Because of the icy roads, it took us 2 to 2.5 hours to get to Ussuriysk. Artem’s Baby Home is larger and houses 120 children while Baby Home 3 in Ussuriysk houses 80 children. The director of Artem deals more with the business side of things and did not appear as hands on as the director in Ussuriysk. The Ussuriysk director is also a doctor and an adoptive mother and seemed very involved with the children.

Black American
On our second visit at the baby home, Lana – our interpreter – knock on the staff’s door to let them know that we had arrived. Lana began to chuckle. She said the workers had asked if she brought a Black American couple to visit today. They do not see very many African or other dark skinned people in Vladivostok. The only other ethnicity that can be seen besides Caucasian is Asian. They are very interested in other ethnicities and think it is intriguing that the US is a melting pot of people. We smiled at Lana and said we were sorry to disappoint them but we were not Black Americans.

Tori Hannsen
That is the name (maybe not spelled correctly) of the lady that sent her adopted son back on an airplane by himself in April. While this is a private blog, I won’t say much as there is nothing ever truly private on the internet. But while in Russia it was very interesting to hear another point of view on this situation. We had never even thought of a possible ‘conspiracy theory’ surrounding that situation. Very interesting.

Strollers
For those that have been in Vladivostok, you know that you must bundle up your child to go outside. Even in weather that many of us would wear a sweater or light jacket, it is expected that children wear winter hats and mittens. In the winter babies are bundled up very tight and then put in carriages that have wool lining. It struck me as funny that at the Vlad Inn couples would park the carriages outside the restaurant in front of a window. They would leave the baby outside and come in to eat. It was probably 15 degrees outside. Granted the baby had to be warm and I am sure they didn’t want to go through the trouble of unbundling them, but I still just couldn’t get over the idea of leaving a baby outside while going in to dine.